The rift, the crystal tower, and the seat of sacrifice (Spoilers up to 6.0)

[Slatersev]

I completely agree with the rest of your post, but this part... no, I really don't think so. Not saying Pandaemonium's not gonna take some wild turns and give us one hell of an origin story for at least one fairly major villain, but I don't think Pandaemonium's gonna have a huge lore impact. If nothing else, it's got a huge problem of distance; it's basically as far away from the core events of the game as it's possible to get; it's gonna be real hard to drop impactful lore bombs on the game's present day from twelve thousand years in the past.

Granted, they still managed to do a bit of that in the main story, so I wouldn't be too surprised, but I'd be surprised if the impact of Pandaemonium on the present-day setting is anything more than 'now you have an origin story for the namazu, and a sad backstory for Lahabrea and/or Elidibus'.

Eric's sundered shard is clearly the scientist giving the quest. So we have another Gaia equivalent in play on the source if they ever wanna use it later

[Iscah]

Eric's sundered shard is clearly the scientist giving the quest. So we have another Gaia equivalent in play on the source if they ever wanna use it later

If Claudien is Erich, that means Erich got sundered which means he cannot be Lahabrea and does not necessarily have any claim to Ascian-style powers.

[Cleretic]

If Claudius is Erich, that means Erich got sundered which means he cannot be Lahabrea and does not necessarily have any claim to Ascian-style powers.

And also definitely wouldn't have any way to get any memories, so there's no Gaia connections here whatsoever. (Also his name is Claudien, but that's not really important.)

Normal raids have a tendency to go so absolutely nutbar that I wouldn't say any evidence we have at this point, no matter how direct, could be considered 'clear'. The only thing I'm confident about is saying that we'll get some kind of backstory/origin story for either Lahabrea or Elidibus. I can't say which, because there's ample room to twist out of either (it's possible that the 'real' Lahabrea won't turn up and will remain a background figure, and new allies in normal raids are never what they first seem so I doubt Themis or Erich are what they appear to be), but I don't think they'd twist out of both for simple reason that, if they do, then there's no longer any real hook to the story. And for all the twists normal raids have taken in the past, they still at least revolve around the central pitch the initial story provided.

[Lyth]

I don't see how Claudien could be the same Lahabrea that we've fought against in ARR and Heavensward, given that his soul would have to be reborn again and he would have to reach full adulthood in the interim between the end of the 3.0 MSQ and now.

The Sage questline seems to suggest that there is some sort of compatibility effect at work when you pick up a job crystal. Not anyone can pick a job stone up and learn about the myriad deeds of the predecessors who held it (or inherit their persona, in the case of Frey). If the same holds true for the Convocation stones, perhaps it is possible for someone who is not Lahabrea to inherit Lahabrea's memories and/or persona, so long as they have the right compatibility for his job stone. So that might be the direction that they're going with Claudien.

I think the primary tie in for all this is going to be the Final Days. The unmarked Lahabrea stone that Claudien's team found warned us that something in Pandaemonium was putting the planet in grave danger. We know that Amaurot's Final Days started after a terrible cry was heard from within the earth, and Pandaemonium is a journey into the depths. We know that there's an index transformation in every scenario that precedes the changes in the sky. The role quests had us hunt down the 'original blasphemy' in each region to put an end to the transformations. There's really only one that hasn't been accounted for yet: the very first case of all, the one which was responsible for the fall of Amaurot.

It's not particularly hard to give this story current day relevance, if they want. All that is necessary is to set the deepest tier (from the naming convention - perhaps Pandaemonium: Tartarus?) in the present day ruins of Elpis, 12000 years later.

I will say this, though. It's incredibly difficult to judge a raid story's direction based off of the first tier. These things are always designed so that the biggest surprises only show up in the final tier.

[Iscah]

(Also his name is Claudien, but that's not really important.)

Oh yeah, normally I'm good with character names but I wasn't confident on that one, but was posting in a hurry and ignored the part of my brain saying it didn't seem quite right.

Fixed it now.

[KageTokage]

I think the primary tie in for all this is going to be the Final Days. The unmarked Lahabrea stone that Claudien's team found warned us that something in Pandaemonium was putting the planet in grave danger. We know that Amaurot's Final Days started after a terrible cry was heard from within the earth, and Pandaemonium is a journey into the depths. We know that there's an index transformation in every scenario that precedes the changes in the sky. The role quests had us hunt down the 'original blasphemy' in each region to put an end to the transformations. There's really only one that hasn't been accounted for yet: the very first case of all, the one which was responsible for the fall of Amaurot.

It's mentioned that the same cry was heard in the present day before the incident in Thavnair, so whatever the source of it was is still around.

I'm really hoping it's not just a red herring and that it has major significance.

[Necrotica]

It's mentioned that the same cry was heard in the present day before the incident in Thavnair, so whatever the source of it was is still around.

I'm really hoping it's not just a red herring and that it has major significance.

Do we ever hear the noise in the game? For something so build up you would expect it to actually happen while the player was there to experience it.

[KageTokage]

I had initially thought it was the "keening" that precedes the visions of the Final Days we see both with ourselves and Krile, but that phenomena seemed limited strictly to Echo bearers, whereas the cry from the earth was evidently perceptible by normal people as well.

I'd like to think it's foreshadowing that Etheriys might be alive in a more literal sense then we think and that the dynamis from the Final Days was causing distress to some kind of primordial entity sleeping in depths beyond where even Hydaelyn resided.

[Slatersev]

If Claudien is Erich, that means Erich got sundered which means he cannot be Lahabrea and does not necessarily have any claim to Ascian-style powers.

I mean that's also true for Gaia? Loghrif and Mitron were Sundered as well. And Gaia started manifesting her Ascian power before Mitron got his hands on her.

It could happen with another sundered Ascian if they wanted easily.

[Iscah]

I mean that's also true for Gaia? Loghrif and Mitron were Sundered as well. And Gaia started manifesting her Ascian power before Mitron got his hands on her.

It could happen with another sundered Ascian if they wanted easily.

That's my point. Lahabrea wasn't sundered. He existed as a complete 14/14 soul up until very recently, so it is impossible for Claudien to have a shard of Lahabrea's soul.

Therefore, if Claudien does have Erich's soul, then Erich cannot turn out to be "our" Lahabrea by the end of the Pandæmonium story.